Package collector for coin package machine



July 24, 1956 F. w. scHol-:NEWOLF 2,755,978

PACKAGE coLLEcToR Foa com PACKAGE MACHINE Filed Jan. 4, 1954 2Sheets-Sheet l July 24, 1956 F. w. scHoENEwoLF 2,755,978

PACKAGE COLLECTOR FOR COIN FACKAGE MACHINE Filed aan. 4, 1954 asheets-sheet 2 FIG. 4. l.. 1 7

47a JNVENTOR.

ICH w. scHoENEwoLF a Arme/VW PACKAGE COLLECTOR FOR COIN PACKAGE MACHINEFriederich W. Schoenewolf, New York, N. Y., assigner to AutomaticCoinwrapping Machine Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of NewYork Application January 4, 1954, Serial No. 401,833

Claims. (Cl. 53-244) This invention relates to collecting packages ofcoins from machines handling coin packages, such for example as machineswhich automatically or semi-automatically, count and pacakage coins inrolls.

Heretofore in order to dispose coin packages in a more or less orderlymanner in bags or other containers, it has been customary for theoperator of the machine to arrange the packages by hand; for exampleplace them side by side parallel to each other. The present inventionprovides for doing this mechanically.

To this end, briey, I provide the coin handling machine with an inclinedconveyor, which may consist of a trough along which the packages canpass by gravity, and l locate the upper portion of the conveyor adjacentthe outlet from the machine and dispose the lower end of the conveyorsubstantially horizontally. This lower end of the conveyor is opened orported to permit movement of coin packages therefrom sidewise, at leastby preference, and a movable gate is provided to prevent the escape ofpackages from this horizontal portion of the conveyor until a package orpackages arriving thereat has or have arrived fully opposite the portfrom the conveyor and preferably has or have come substantially to restin a horizontal position. The operation of the gate can be timed byputting it under the control of the coin packages or by timing it withassociated apparatus. However this may be done, the result is that eachpacknited States Patent() age may leave the conveyor substantially inthe path of n the packages preceding it as it were, and preferably atleast in a direction at right angles to its length and quite parallel tothe packages which preceded and those which follow later. At the openingof the conveyor a tray is located to receive the packages from theconveyor, and as a result of the orderly manner in which the packagesleave the conveyor and pass onto the tray, they are moved readily towardthe opposite end of the tray and arranged parallel to each other and inone or more layers. To move the packages along the tray, the bottom ofthe tray may be inclined downwardly so that the packages move to theirassigned places in the tray by gravity. Preferably a carrier is providedto support the tray and lower the tray as packages are added to thetray, so that as one layer of packages is completed, the followingpackages pass on to the completed layer and build up another. The traymay be removable from the carrier, and it may be the permanent containeras it were for the packages collected in it or it may be only asintermediate holder from which the packages can be dumped into a bag orother container without substantially losing their parallel relations aswill be understood from prior practices.

The foregoing and other matters of the invention are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings which showl the form of the invention which Iprefer at present: Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a well known coincounting and packaging machine with a collective device added to it inaccordance with the invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation ofthe collecting mechanism and ICC the immediately related portion of thecoin package machine of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional view about on theline lll-III of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 4is a detail of the trough through which the packages slide from theoutlet of the coin package machine, the gate and the gate operatingmechanism. Fig. 5 is a section about on the line V-V of Fig. 4. Fig. 6is a plan view of an alternative form of the member of the coin packagemachine which transports the completed packages to the outlet of themachine. Fig. 7 is a section on the line VII-VII of Fig. 6.

Speaking generally and as before indicated, the function and nature ofthe machine handling the coin packages is not wholly material to thepresent invention and primarily the coin counting and packaging machineshown in the accompanying drawings (which is a Well known one as will berecognized) is intended to be representative of the coin handlingmachines to which the invention is applicable. Briefly this machineshown in the drawings consists of a power driven mechanism, representedgenerally at A, which has a hopper into which a mass of coins of onedenomination, say pennies, dimes, nickels, quarters or half dollars, isdumped, and which, under the control of the operator, delivers thesecoins one by one and counted into lots of say fty pennies, or fortynickels, etc., and delivers them through that one of the tubes 1 whichis appropriate to the size of the coin being handled at the moment. Astock of paper tubes 2, each closed at one end and open at the other andof a size appropriate for the size of coin being handled at the moment,is carried in a box 3 hung on the machine convenient to one hand of theoperator. At the opposite side of the machine a crimping mechanism isprovided for crimping the open ends of these tubes when loaded with acounted number of coins. In the instance illustrated this crimpingmechanism consists of a member 4 carrying a number of power drivencrimper heads 5, one appropriate to each size of coin that the machineis adapted to handle, and a movable member 6 to transport the loadedpaper tubes to the appropriate crimper head and thence to the outletfrom the machine. Here the movable member 6 is a disc pierced with holes7 appropriate for holding individual tubes 2 vertically and resting on abase plate 8 which prevents the tubes falling through the perforations 7except at one place where the base plate 8 is pierced with an opening 9.As any tube loaded with coins and crimped at its formerly open endreaches this opening 9, it falls therethrough, endwise, from themachine. The opening 9 is the machine outlet. Under manual control bythe operator the movable or transporting member 6 is rotated step bystep by power, the angular length of each step being equal to theangular distance between each two adjacent yholes 7 and each hole comingto rest at the position of the hole 7a in Fig. 3. This hole 7a is at thecrimping station where the packages are crimped successively.

Preliminary to operating this machine with any particular size of coin,that tube 1 which is of a size appropriate to coins of that size isbrought by hand to position to receive coins from the countingmechanism; also by hand the crimper head member 4 is rotated asnecessary to place the crimper head 5 of corresponding size at thecrimping station, i. e. directly above the package-carrying hole 7a ofthe movable member 6 in Fig. 3. Then to operate the machine, theoperator takes one of the tubes 2 and holds it, open end up, underneaththe delivery tube l, and by an appropriate control starts the counting.The machine having counted out and into the tube 2 the appropriate load,it automatically stops delivering coins and the operator sets the loadedtube in one of the openings 7 of the disc 6 and by a, say, secondcontrol vcauses the member 6 to advance a step and also (as the disc 6comes to rest again) causes the crimper head 5 which is at the' 7aposition to crimp the open end of any tube that may be standing at the7a position. As successive tubes 2 are llled and set in the movablemember or disc 6 in this manner, the first and each succeeding tube iscrimped, and as each passes from the crimping station and comes to theoutlet 9, it falls through this outlet endwise.

In accordance with the present invention an inclined trough 29' isprovided through which the vtilled coin rolls can slide endwise. Theupper end 26a of this trough is located underneath the outlet 9 from themachine and its upper portion is inclined suthcient-ly (see Fig. 4) toenable the coin rolls, coming into the upper end of the trough endwise,`to slide down the trough 2li by gravity to say, the far end Ztlb of thetrough. The lower portion of the trough, i. e. the portion spanned bythe bracket c in Fig. 4, is disposed horizontal-ly, and while one wall20d' oi the trough is continued to the end 2Gb of the trough, the otherWall 28e is cut short, as it were, at about Zt'f, Fig. 4. An end wall orabutment 6G prevents the escape of coin packages from this end of thetrough. The end 20f of the trough wall 29e is spaced from the end wallor abutment 60 a distance at least a little greater than the length ofthe longest coin package to be handled by the machine and thereby isprovided an opening in one side of the trough, as it were, from 20f to29g, through which a coin package coming down endwise from the upper end20a of the trough and assuming a horizontal position in the region 20c,can escape sidewise Lrom the trough and in a` direction at right anglesto its length. Extending across this open space in the trough wallshowever is a gate 22 which is carried on and attached to a shaft 23mounted tol rotate in brackets 24a fastened to xed parts of thestructure. A spring 25, fastened at one end to the bracket 24a and atits opposite end to a collar 26 fastened to shaft 23, tends to hold thegate 22 closed (position in Fig. 5), in which position coin rolls areprevented from leaving the trough. An arm 27 fastened to the shaft 23and linked to the armature 28 of a solenoid 29 (Fig. 4), and a switch at30 in the line supplying power to the solenoid 29, provide for openingthe gate, i. e. swinging it to its dotted line position in Fig. 5. Thatis to say, closing the switch 30 energizes the solenoid 29 and therebyswings the gate open for the discharge of any coin rolll or coin rollsthat may be resting in the trough 20 and against the gate 22, whileopening the switch 30 allows the spring 25 to close the gate and hold itclosed against any coin package or packages that may come to restagainst the gate until the switch 30 is closed again. A pin 31,extending from the bracket-plate which carries the solenoid 29 and gateshaft 23, is engageable by the operating arm 27, in its downwardmovements, to stop the closing movement of the gate at a position wherethe gate is located a little farther from the trough wall 20d than theend 20f of the opposite trough 20e; thereby the end 201 acts as a stopto limit the backward movement of any coin package that may rebound fromthe trough end wall or abutment 60.

As before indicated, it is desirable that the coin packages at leastcome to fully opposite the escape port of the conveyor, and preferablycome to rest horizontally or substantially so, before being allowed topass out of the lower end of the conveyor. This is especially the casewhere the coin packages are to move sidewise out of the conveyor bygravity to their places in a receptacle for them, such as a tray inwhich they are collected. This can be done by properly timing theoperation of the gate switch 30. Rather than securing this timing byputting the switch 30 under the control of, say, coin packages in theconveyor, I prefer to associate the switch with some umoving part of thepackage machine, and most preferably with the movablepackage-transporting member 6 i i or a corresponding part. Alsopreferably, in cases where `the` `packages escape from the4 packagemachine as they h Monsummano do through the port 9, the timing is suchthat the gate 22 is held closed while the machine outlet 9 is open forthe passage of paci-:ages through it (e. g. disc 6 positioned with oneof the holes 7 over 9), or substantially so, and is open, or operable toopen, while packages are being moved toward the outlet 9, orsubstantially during such periods. ln the instance illustrated, theswitch 3d is of the self-opening type, for convenience of construction abell-crank 35 .is interposed between the edge of the disc 6 and theoperating member of the switch 3h, and the edge of the disc 6. is givensuch a cam shape, as it were, that, acting through the bell-crank 35,thc disc 6 allows the switch Sti to stand open whenever the disc is atrest with one of they holes. 7" standing over the outlet 9 (Fig. 3) butholds the switch Sil closed while the disc is rotating to bring anotherhole 7 to the outlet 9; rl`hc disc 6 can be given a special shape inorder that it may operate in this way. in the present instance however,the disc 6 has a radial passage 33 leading into cach package hole orperforation 7, Figs. l' and 3, through which packages are clamped duringcrimping7 and thesev give the" edge ofthe disc a sufcient cam-shape, asit were, for the present purposes. That is to say the switch 3@ can bcso located that the sections of the edge of disc 6 between radialpassages 33 act on bell-crank 35 to holdI the switch 3) closed when itshould be closed7 while the appearance of a radial passage 38 at thebell-crank 35 allows the switch 30 to open. As a result switch 30 isopen, and therefore the gate 22 is closed, whenever a package may bepassing through the outlet 9 of the machine and a little timethereafter, but after a package passing from the outlet has had time tosettle down the horizontal portion 20c of the trough, the subsequentadvance of the transporting member 6 another step causes the gate 22 toopen and permit the escape of any coin package or packages that may bein the trough at the moment.

At the gate side of the trough a carrier is provided for a tray toreceive and collect the coin packages leaving the trough. Primarily thiscarrier comprises a platform 4t) on which the tray rests, two levers 41and 42 hinged respectively to extensions from the platform at 43 and 44and coupled together for synchronous movement by a bar 45 hinged to eachof the levers 41 and 42 and so related that the system constitutes aparallel motion, i. e.

a mechanism, which, while permitting the platform to rise and fall,always holds the platform parallel to its initial plane. This plane maybe taken as the plane of the top of the platform 40 when in its highestposition, and as shown may be inclined downwardly from the trough (seeFig. 2) to such an extent that a roll of coins delivered into the trayfrom the trough runs toward the opposite end of the tray. The tray isillustrated at 46 in Figs. 2 and 3. It` consists of a bottom, twovertical side walls and an end wall closing the lower end of the tray.The open and upper end of the tray, when resting on the platform in theinitial position, is disposed adjacent and either on a level with or alittle below the lower edge of the side wall 20d of the trough (Fig. 3)so that a coin roll escaping from 20d falls into the tray. When theplatform 40 is made long enough to carry trays of different lengths, asin Fig. 2 for example, one or more stops 48 may be provided to set intothe platform at appropriate places to keep short trays from sliding downthe platform. Inasmuch as the rolls are delivered one by one in thearrangement being described the width of the tray 46 is a little greaterthan the length of one roll, so that the rolls of coins run downwardlyin it easily. A spring 47, mounted at one end of 47a on the xedstructure and at its other end 47b bearing against the lever lill, tendsto hold the platform in its upper, Fig. 3, position. However this spring(or two or more, say successively operating, springs that may besubstituted for it) has such a characteristic that the addition of coinrolls to the tray 46, by their weight, forces platform 40 and therebythe tray downwardly to such an extent that when the rst layer of coinrolls is completed (i. e. the layer shown partly completed in Fig. 2),the tray has fallen sufficiently to permit the next coin roll comingfrom the trough to pass onto the first layer and thus start la secondlayer. Similarly, when the second layer is completed, the tray may havefallen sufficiently to allow a third layer to be started, and so on tothe extent that may be desired. The tray 46 may rest on the platform 40merely by its own weight so that when filled it can be removed readilyfor emptying, or to permit another to be substituted or it.

The floor of any tray may be a plane surface. Preferably however Icorrugate the floor of each tray, or provide it with a corrugatedcovering, in which the hills and valleys extend across the tray, Figs. 2and 3, and the hills are of such height and are so shaped and spacedfrom each other that the corrugated floor more or less resembles the topof a layer of the coin rolls being handled at the moment. Suchcorrugation seems to help in causing the rolls to remain at right anglesto the length of the tray when rolling down the bottom of a tray.

With the transporting member 6 shown in Fig. 2, it is evident that thecoin rolls coming down the trough will leave the trough one by one andenter the tray one by one. This is not altogether essential however. I.e. two or more rolls, arranged end to end, may be delivered by thetrough at a time and thereby two or more rows of rolls built up at atime. Fig. 6 shows at 56 how a transporting member can be made todeliver a plurality of rolls at a time from the trough. All that isnecessary is to so cam the edge of the member that the gate is allowedto open only after the desired number of rolls have passed the outlet 9.Thus in the example of Fig. 6, which is arranged to deliver the coinrolls in pairs, the edge of the member 56 is cut away as at 57 betweenmembers of pairs of the pockets 7 so that the bell-crank 35 of theswitch 30 is not engaged by the edge of the transporting member 56except after each second pocket 7 as will be understood from Fig. 6. Ineach instance the width of the tray is made sufiiciently greater than acorresponding integral multiple of the length of the packages to permitthe packages to roll away from the trough freely, but not much greaterthan this. For example, when one row only is to be built up at a time,the tray width need be only a little greater than one roll, and when tworows are to be built up at a time, as when using the transporting memberof Fig. 6, the width of the receiving tray is made a little greater thanthe sum of the lengths of two rolls. In such cases also the length ofthe horizontal portion 20c of the trough, and the length of the outletfrom the trough, must be great enough to hold and permit the escape of acorresponding number of rolls placed end to end of each other of course.By, say, providing the machine with movable roll-transporting memberslike 6 for long rolls and members like 56 for short rolls, substitutableone for the other, and making the horizontal section 20c long enough toaccommodate the longest length to be handled, the mechanism can beadapted to collect, for example, both long rolls of small diameter coinsin single rows and short rolls of large diameter coins in say, two rows,side by side.

Usually, in such cases, I provide an abutment 60, within and extendingtransversely of the trough near its lower end, and fixable, as by abracket and clamping screw 61, at various places along, say, the upperedge of the trough wall 20a'. By moving this abutment 6i) to anappropriate position, a single roll, long or short, can be stopped withits middle exactly opposite the middle of the tray platform 40, and thusopposite the center line of an appropriate receiving tray, or two ormore rolls arranged end to end in 20c can be placed with the middle ofthe aggregate opposite the center line of the tray platform. Theabutment 60 therefore serves to center the coin packages with respect toa fixed tray position.

Such an abutment is .not entirely necessary however, as will beobserved.

In the operation of the mechanism illustrated in Figs.

. 1 to 5, packages of coins, in the form of rolls, are produced by thecoin package machine and set in the disc 6 as heretofore. As thistransporting disc 6 brings a coin package to or near the outlet 9,bell-crank 35 enters the related radial passage 38, and accordinglyswitch 30 opens and the gate 22 closes, Fig. 5. While the disc 6 standsin this position for a moment, the package falls endwise through theoutlet 9 and slides down the trough and comes to rest in the horizontalportion 20c of the trough, and against the gate 22. As necessary, theabutment 60 may be positioned to stop the lengthwise movement of thepackage directly opposite the tray. Sometime after this the disc 6advances again, and as it does so the edge of the disc actuates thebell-crank 35 and thus closes switch 30 and holds it closed while thedisc is advancing to bring another package to the outlet 9. During thisperiod therefore the gate 22 is held open and the package rolls out ofthe trough into the tray. The cycle then repeats. As a coin packagerolls into the tray, it rolls to the end of the tray or to the packagewhich preceded it, as the case may be. A layer of coin packages is thusbuilt up. Also as coin packages are added to the tray, their weightcauses the tray carrier and tray to sink until as one layer of packagesis completed, succeeding packages roll on the first layer and build up asecond layer. Similarly additional layers can be formed in the tray.

The operation in the case when two or more rolls are to be deliveredfrom the trough at a time (for example, when using a transporting member56) is quite like that already described except that as the, as it were,first roll arrives at the gate 22, it is held there until the secondroll also arrives at the gate 22. Thereafter the two rolls are allowedto escape from the trough together, and located end to end of eachother. Similarly with the third and fourth rolls, the fifth and sixthrolls, etc.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the detailsof construction and operation described above and shown in theaccompanying drawings except as appears hereafter in the claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a coin handling machine having an outlet throughwhich the machine delivers packages of coins, of an inclined conveyor,the upper portion of said conveyor being disposed adjacent said outletto receive coin packages endwise and the lower portion of said conveyorbeing substantially horizontal and having an opening positioned topermit the movement of coin packages therefrom sidewise, a movable gateto prevent the escape of packages from said horizontal portion of saidconveyor, and means to cause said gate to release packages from saidconveyor when substantially at rest in a horizontal position.

2. The subject matter of claim 1 characterized by the fact that acarrier is provided `to support and position a tray with one end of thetray adjacent said gate to receive coin packages sidewise therefrom andwith the bottom of the tray inclined downwardly away from the gate.

3. The subject matter of claim l characterized by the fact that apackage-receiving tray is provided, one end of the tray being disposedadjacent said gate to receive coin packages sidewise therefrom, thebottom Iof the tray being inclined downwardly from said gate, and thewidth of the tray being sufficiently greater than an integral multipleof the length of the packages to permit said packages to roll away fromthe gate and toward the opposite end of the tray.

4. The combination with a coin handling machine having an outlet throughwhich the machine delivers packages of coins endwise one by one, aninclined trough to convey each coin package endwise from said outlet,the upper end of the trough being disposed adjacent said outlet toreceive each coin package endwise therefrom, the upper portion of thetrough being disposed at a sucient angle to the horizontal to enablethe. packages to slide by gravity to the lower end of the trough, andthe lower portion of the trough being substantially horizon tal andhaving an opening in oneside to permit the escape of each coin packagesidewise from the trough, a movable gate to prevent the escape ofpackages from the side opening of the trough, and` means to cause saidgate to release packages from the trough when substantially at rest inthe horizontal portion of the trough and before the next succeedingpackage has entered the trough.

5. The subject matter of claim 4, characterized by the fact that acarrier is provided to support and position a package-receiving traywith one end of the tray adjacent said side opening of the trough andwith its bottom inclined to enable the packages to pass by gravitytoward the opposite end of the tray.

6. `The subject matter of claim 5, characterized by the fact that saidcarrier lowers a tray on it as coin packages accumulate in the tray.

7. The subject matter of claim 5, characterized by the carrier having aspring for urging the carrier and the tray toward the trough, saidspring permitting the carrier to move to lower positions as coinpackages accumulate on the tray.

8, The subject matter of claim 4- characterized by the fact that anabutment, adjustable to diierent positions lengthwise of the trough, isprovided in said horizontal portion of the trough to adapt the mechanismto packages of different lengths.

9. The subject matter of claim 4 characterized by the fact that saidcoin handling machine includes a movable member which moves coinpackages to said outlet, said means to cause the gate to release coinpackages comprises a solenoid and a switch controlling the solenoid, andsaid switch is engageable by said movable member for operation thereby.

10. The subject matter of claim 5 characterized by the carrier for thetray having parallel motion apparatus for maintaining the tray on thesame inclination in all positions.

References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 804,145Lissak Nov. 7, 1905 1,042,200 Caughrean Oct. 22, 1912 1,311,590 BinghamJuly 29, 1919 1,647,356 Hendry Nov. 1, 1927 2,466,386 Curoni Apr. 5,1949

